Mega Mari is a sidescrolling Platformer/Bullet Hell created in the vein of Mega Man and Touhou. Uses many elements from both series, including having eight "robot masters" as most Mega Man games do, and then the final castle stages where Wily Patchouli awaits, as well as the gameplay being quite similar to Mega Man games. The enemies focus largely on bullet patterns, with single enemies shooting anywhere from a single bullet to 12+ bullets at a time. The results when many enemies are on the screen can be quite overwhelming.

The plot doesn't quite involve world domination here, it's pretty much Patchouli getting annoyed with Marisa and Alice "borrowing" books out of her library and not bringing them back, so she transforms her library into a castle and has multiple characters who have something against Marisa try to stop her and Alice from breaking into it.

The main characters handle relatively the same as far as jumping and running speed go, but the pair both use different weapons. Marisa's standard shot behaves the same as Mega Man's Mega Buster prior to it receiving the ability to charge in Mega Man 4, while Alice uses a laser beam that pierces shields, such as the Prismriver's instruments, and hits more rapidly the closer to the enemy you are. On the down side, it's only about half as strong as Marisa's weapon.

Unlike Mega Man series that have multiple playable characters, where weapons achieved from beating bosses are usable by both characters, here you have to decide which character gets the weapon the boss drops, while the other character gets nothing. Both characters also have an extra weapon/item, Marisa's broom, which behaves similarly to Item 2 from Mega Man 2, being given after earning four boss weapons, and Alice's Shanghai Doll which is given if she receives four boss weapons and behaves similar to Beat from Mega Man 5 and 6, following onscreen enemies and rapid fire shooting at them.

This game provides examples of:

Blow You Away: Aya acts as this game's Fan Fiend. She doesn't attack, but uses wind to push you backwards instead...usually into a cluster of fairies or a pit.

Dummied Out: Sakuya's stage has an area with a few enemies and two ladders going off the bottom of the screen that's unreachable.

Evil Twin: Clone Marisa, following in Copy Mega Man's steps... until she transforms into Super Marisa.

Excuse Plot: Marisa and Alice decide to break into the Scarlet Devil Mansion to steal some books from Patchouli. Patchouli takes a page from Dr. Wily. Go.

Flunky Boss: Alice's boss fight for the fourth Patchouli stage is Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu, whose court will take potshots at you and jump at you to attack. Komachi also charges in from the sides of the screen on her boat to attack from time to time.

Youmu takes extra damage from the standard weapons but is about as fast as Quickman.

For that matter, all of the rabbits in general. They typically jump all over the place and charge at you in varying patterns. One rabbit generally isn't that hard to take care of, but you're often dealing with several at once.

Interface Screw: Rumia covers the stage with darkness as long as she's on screen, forcing you to either remove her or make the jumps blind.

Kaizo Trap: Reimu's Yin-Yang Orbs do not disappear immediately after her defeat, and will remain on screen for a brief moment before finally disappearing. If enough of them are on the screen (see Spam Attack below), it's entirely possible to beat Reimu and then get killed by the Yin-Yang Orbs before you can even reach her weapon!

Let's Split Up, Gang: Marisa and Alice split up and take on their own path versions of the third castle stage.

Lightning Bruiser: Hong Meiling and Youmu Konpaku could both give Quick Man a run for his money, and neither of them slouch in the damage area, either.

Nintendo Hard: Take what was hard about the Mega Man series. You following? Good. Now, take Touhou, add tons of bullets, and you get this game. This game is the equivalent of Mega Man if it had Lunatic Mode.

Sequential Boss: The final fight with Patchouli starts by herself, then she hitches up into in a large ship which looks like a teapot once the front is demolished (a parody of the Wily Machine), her saucer (the first time ever that a saucer in a Mega Man like game has been a boss), and finally, Mecha Patchouli. All of them are insanely tough.

The player gets a break between the "teapot ship" and the saucer, thankfully.

As you pick one trick for one of your two characters to learn, and the enemy charactes use multiple powers, this also displays the Unskilled, but Strong and Weak, but Skilled contrast in the protagonists. Marisa will usually learn something flashy and/or damaging. Alice will pick something lower-key which usually gives her new angles to attack from. For example, Marisa will grab Reimu's Yin-Yang orbs (huge, heavy bouncing balls which wreck armored mooks) while Alice goes for the paper homing amulets.

And of course, Marisa and Alice are the two characters which subvert those tropes: Marisa is a Badass Normal who intensely studies to produce bigger and bigger explosions and blasts, while Alice is Willfully Weak, pursuing precision and finesse rather than tapping into the tremendous raw power she possesses.

Warm-Up Boss: Cirno's attacks are nearly always easy to dodge, and Alice's weapon deals 2x damage to her. Not to say her stage is as forgiving, however.

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